Gig C&C

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Hey all,

I took some pictures of a gig a couple of weeks back. It was very casual but I was didn't want to get in anybodies way. First time taking pictures like this. Can you let me know what you think and what I should focus on improving?

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m5ex9oqjawdg2i

I have had a look at the pics on a different screen and removed those which definitely need more work.

If anybody has any criticism or tips, I would love to hear it

clintondaly

Im far from being in a position to offer critique as i am only starting out so im giving a persoanl rather than a very technical opinion.

1-Nice but better if we could see more of the girls face.
3-Needed more of the girl in the picture
5-Has too much motion
6 & 7 i like.

Im sure you will get technical opinions also.

Clinton

elysium321

Here's my 2 cents... Please take my comments with a pinch of salt as I wouldn't be able to take them better myself.

1. I like this one the best of them all. The face is a bit underexposed so I would try to work on that but other than that it's sharp, you managed to capture the atmosphere, lights, ... so thumbs up.
2. A little underexposed. I would also try to zoom out slightly to get the whole chair in the frame.
3. Similar to the above, zoom out to make sure that you get the whole body in the frame, i.e. no missing toes or hand. Increase the shutter speed to avoid the blurry motion on that gentleman. I know that that's very difficult in those light conditions.
4. This would have been a perfect one if you managed to take it with a faster shutter speed. I really like the colours, exposure and especially the fact that you captured the moment, their facial expressions, ... Anyway, apart from not freezing the motion, this would be my #2.
5. I don't like this one. Blurry, feet cut off and I wouldn't be sure whether he's singing or in serious pain.
6. Nice one, capturing the moment again. It would be better if you had zoomed out a little bit to get his hand in the frame. But I like the lights and everything.
7. Ok, a bit blurry and also too tight in terms of cropping the image. The subjects are too close to the frame of the photo.

But well done overall. It's not easy at all to take good photos in poor light conditions.

pandaboy

Nice photos Iamxavier, I won't comment on each one, just a general synopsis of what I can see from each image.

Did you use auto or manual focus on the night? Looking at the focus in the images I can see you were squeezing for light - one problem with this - lower aperture = very fine line to focus on subjects. Again, the same can be said about the shutter speed - depending on your kit, it can be fairly frustrating trying to get those nice sharp shots.

Which lens were you using?

Composition - it's good, but I'd really look to work on it. The 3rd image is a good example - obviously for stage shows you're limited to certain angles and perspectives but always aim to fit everything in, unless you have a point of focus on your subject. Again third photo - missing the lady's arm and, I'd try and squeeze to your left a little bit more, and try and even the space of the two people in the shot. If a shot is too wide and you want to get closer, always remember that you can crop an image in post.

One final note is exposure - the first and second images are an example. Expose for the prominent features that you want to stand out in an image. The first one is a toughy because of the red fill light on your subject. Red's a tough colour to expose for in DSLRs, especially in low light. Set up test shots first and then build your exposure from those. Again we're all limited by our kit but that should be where we as photographers look for other methods to find that right exposure. Second image is the same, lots of back light on your subject and it takes away from the exposure of her face.

With some slight post work - curves and levels - those top two images will be grand. Nothing to worry about there - it would take some small fine tuning but it's better to have an under exposed image than an over exposed one. The one thing I will say is, focus on your focus, hehe. But yeah, find out which aperture is the sweet spot for your lens regarding sharpness and tone ie: Canon's nifty-fifty - I never use 1.8 for photography - the colours are terrible, the focus can be horrible to control and the sharpness just isn't right. Whereas if you lower your aperture to 2.8/3.2 then you've got a completely different image. Same can be said for the Canon 18-55m kit lens - sweet spot in that is from about 6.0 to 9.0.

pandaboy

Forgot to say fair play on snapping the gig and throwing your pics up. Takes a lot for someone to ask for a critique on their images. I'd recommend throwing up a collection of images from different events/locations and then building a critique from there.
Also, learn the crap out of post processing for your images. When I started using photoshop it was tough but with some tutorials I actually learned more about photography than going out there and snapping people. The mechanics and science of exposure is just incredible, especially when each lens pretty much has a different reaction to exposures.

Fair play. Hope I was able to provide some insight

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Thanks for the feedback. I will most certainly take it all on board and be mindful of it in future.

This was my first gig and I wasn't officially commissioned to take the pictures.

I was using a Canon 700D and a 50mm F1.8. I am saving for a zoom lens, but I am not 100% sure which to go for just yet. I am looking at the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM or maybe the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM.

Regarding the motion, I will just have to practice a lot in this field. I didn't think it was too bad myself at first, but I can now see that there's possibly too much motion in the images.

The composition was difficult as I was in the same spot the whole time. The stage was only a foot or two off the floor and there was a judging panel in front of the stage. I kinda had this one spot to the right of the stage where I could sit down, but this really limited my movement. I am thinking, if I had a zoom lens, it would have worked out a lot better.

Great tip on the appreture of the 50mm. I wasn't aware of this. Is there some reference material I can use to find out the best appreture for the lenses I have?

I bought a flash since this gig and have used it recently at another gig (I might put them photos up soon too). The lighting at these shows is sooo difficult to shoot in. I set my AW balance to automatic as my test shots were not fantastic when I set it manually, another area I need lots of practice :P. A lot of my favourites were changed to sepia or B&W as the light was just awful. Tons of purple which was difficult to get rid of.

pandaboy

Cheers for the reply iamxavier, some great answers there mate. I was guessing that it was the 50mm. I use it mainly for video; it can be sharp but a lot of artifacture and background noise in some higher ISO images - like 400 in a low lit room can cause this. Still, for around 70 bucks you can't do any better unless you go the M42 lense adaptor route.

Regarding a new lense, first consider the environments you'll be mainly shooting in. Eg: Are you going to be working with gig photography? If so then which kinds of venues will you be photographing at. Will they provide adequate lighting for you to work with a lens that has a minimum of f4.0? For the cost of the lens, I'd maybe consider looking into getting two lenses that would suit your shooting environments. Don't get me wrong, it's a super lens, but if you're photo'ing a gig with ****e lights, then there's nothing you can do but have a noisy image. There's only so much the lovely L glass can do. Still though, they are the ultimate investment; but I'd look to make the kit more adaptable to different environments. For the price of both of those lenses (first hand) you'd get a 50mm 1.4 and a decent 2.8 wide lens (secondhand). Adverts.ie is get for some bargains, but it's also great to give you an idea of how to acommodate your budget for lenses, etc.

Motion, I work with double the focal length of the lens to find your shutter speed. So on a 50mm - then work with 100th/s or higher. I believe it works off of - shutter speed should be the same as the focal length. But practise around, you'll find that with a higher aperture this can sharpen parts of the image that can seem like motion blur, but it's just a bit of focal aberration from the focus.

I'll try and find a few articles for you regarding lens sweet spots - focal length & shutter speeds.

Kit wise - it's not the greatest, just a budget kit - Sigma Macro 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 - Underrated lens, deals with light a better than sharpness Paid E140 for it from Amazon. It's used mainly for video, but for photography I try not to go beyond 180mm if I want to maintain sharpness. Terrible in low light for photography but for video you can get away with a lot.

50mm 1.8 - Rarely used for photography as the 70mm is practically the same focal length as the 50mm because of the cropped sensor on my 550D. Perfect for video, but can be a pain with regards to high aperture focusing - some shots can be make or break if you can't view the screen properly.

Kit Lens 18mm-55mm - Again, another underrated lens. It has IS which is perfect for shooting at low shutter speeds in low light. I try to avoid going below 50th/s, but depending on how the light is you could get away with 30th/s and still maintain sharpness.

Again, this is a budget kit and currently upgrading to Ls. For professional work, these are not lenses I would brag about and I usually borrow better lenses for professional jobs. But for Day time photo shoots I stick with the above and then use them for all of my video. But, they've done the job. I've learned how to use the lenses - it also helps to develop a particular style you'd like to incorporate into your photography.

Here's a video example of these lenses form a music video I shot recently.

eoglyn

Seeing as we are talking about C&C in another thread, i feel like i will give some feedback, and I'm going to qualify this by saying i'm no expert but i really like the motion in 3, 4 and 7 - it might be overdone in 5.

My biggest difficulty with the set are that they display too darkly on my screen. The shadow on her leg in 6 is weird and distracting.

1 and 2 are my pics, but they do display a bit dark - that may be my monitor

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Nice video

I took some pics for another gig I was asked to do. Light was not nice, very very purple. I did have more room to move here though, so that was good.